Literacy 24/7 Reading List

For four years now, I've enjoyed the great pleasure and privilege to be among the readers participating in Literacy 24/7, the annual benefit for the Madison-based Literacy Network. In the last two years, I've asked people in the audience to jot down the title of the last book they read that they would recommend to friends and neighbors -- and, if they wish, to explain why they'd recommend it. Forthwith, the resulting 2009 reading list.

Oyster, a novel by Janette Turner Hospital, "...an edge-of-destruction millennialist settlement in remote Australia and its psychological & material collapse."

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace, One School at a Time, by Greg Mortensen & David Oliver Relin. (Two people recommended this.)

"I read trashy sci-fi novels. The last good one was Iain Banks' Matter."

Into Africa, by Martin Dugard. "Excellent story of Stanley and Livingstone and the events leading up to, 'Dr. Livingstone, I presume.'"

Brand Hijack, by Alex Wipperfurth. "It seems like an industry book, but I loved getting a look behind the curtain of how things are sold to us, especially when it's obvious something is being sold."

"I know everyone else in the world has read this, but I read it for the first time just a few months ago: A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole."

In Search of Klingsor, by Jorge Volpi. "Terrific literary thriller/quantum physics/WWII mystery."

Dreams from My Father

Nickled and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich. "Author works 3 jobs (waitress, maid in a motel, work in retail, maybe a Wal-Mart."

Happy Reading,
David